On today's date in 1845, the sleepy little German town of Bonn played host to some 5000 visitors. These ranged from curious natives and opportunistic pickpockets to famous composers, performers, and music lovers from many countries, including their royal highnesses, the British monarch Queen Victoria and her royal consort, Prince Albert.

The occasion was the gala unveiling of a bronze stature of the great German composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, who had been born in Bonn 75 years earlier. A Beethoven Festival was in progress, and before the unveiling of the Beethoven statue, the German composer Ludwig Spohr had conducted a performance of Beethoven’s “Missa solemnis” at the Bonn Cathedral.

For almost a decade, the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt had been tireless in fundraising for this event and almost single-handedly saw to it that it even occurred at all. Liszt was the largest contributor the Beethoven statue fund, and for years had been performing benefit recitals to enlist others in supporting the project.

On August 12th the big day had finally arrived. Alas, the Festival planning committee was totally unprepared for the huge crowd that descended on Bonn, and woefully incompetent in managing just about every aspect of the Festival.

How incompetent? Well, consider this: as their majesties Queen Victoria and King Wilhelm the IV of Prussia looked on, with great fanfare the shroud fell from Beethoven’s statue—only to reveal the statue’s BACK facing the vast assembled crowd…

Oops.